From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harold V. Goldstein (born December 10, 1923),
best known by his stage name Harold Gould, is an
American actor best known for playing Martin Morgenstern in the
1970s sitcoms Rhoda and
The Mary Tyler Moore
Show and as Miles Webber on The Golden
Girls. Gould has acted in film and television for nearly
50 years, appearing in more than 300 television shows, 20 major
motion pictures, and over 100 stage plays, and received Emmy Award-nominations
five times.[1]
He is known for playing elegant, well-dressed men, and he regularly
plays Jewish characters and grandfather-type figures on television
and film.

Contents

Family

Gould lives in Los Angeles
with his wife, Lea. He has two sons, Joshua and Lowell, and a
daughter, Deborah.

Early
life

Gould was born in Schenectady, New York to Louis
and Lillian Goldstein. Louis was a postal worker, and Lillian was a
homemaker who did part-time work for the state health department.
Gould was raised in Colonie, New York and was valedictorian of
his high school class. He enrolled at Albany Teachers College upon
graduation (now known as University at Albany, SUNY), and studied to
become a social studies or English teacher.

After the war, Gould returned to Albany Teachers College to
study drama, and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in
1947.[3]
He performed in summer stock theatre on Cape Cod, then decided to
enroll at Cornell University to study drama
and speech. Gould earned a master of arts degree in 1948 and a
Ph.D. in theatre in 1953 from Cornell, and also met his future
wife, Lea Vernon.

In 1956, Gould was offered a professorship in the drama
department at the University of
California, Riverside,[3]
which he accepted. He taught there until 1960, when he decided to
try professional acting himself.[2] He
had difficulty finding acting jobs at first, and had to take work
as a security guard and as a part-time acting teacher at UCLA.[1]

In 1972, Gould was cast as Martin Morgenstern, the father of
Mary's best friend Rhoda, in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore
Show. He reprised the role the following year and was
hired as a regular when Rhoda was made into a spin-off in
1974. After Rhoda ended, Gould appeared in short-lived
series such as the 1977 series The Feather and Father
Gang, where he starred as Harry Danton, a smooth-talking
ex-con man, with Stefanie Powers as Toni "Feather"
Danton, his daughter and a hard-working, successful lawyer. It ran
for 13 episodes.

He also appeared in the miniseries Washington: Behind Closed
Doors. In the 1980 NBC miniseries Moviola, he portrayed Louis B. Mayer
and earned an Emmy nomination. He appeared as Chad Lowe's grandfather in
Spencer, and played a Jewish widower wooing the Christian
Katharine
Hepburn in Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry. Other roles
included a married man having an affair with another member of his
Yiddish-speaking club in an episode of the
PBS series The Sunset
Years, and as the owner of a deli grooming two
African-American men to inherit his business in Singer &
Sons.[4]
Gould received Emmy nominations for his roles in
Rhoda, Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry and
Moviola.